My family spends an inordinate amount of time talking about strawberry season: predicting when it will arrive, planning when we can go strawberry picking, placing it in a timeline with other fruit picking opportunities, but all that talk makes me want my strawberries NOW. So, while we wait (impatiently) for local strawberries, I have the perfect recipe for grocery store strawberry pancakes.
Grocery store strawberries are more structured, less tender, less sweet (and less tasty),* but with a little bit of maceration you can get around these hurdles and enjoy some delicious strawberry pancakes out of season. As an extra bonus, these pancakes are simple and come together in one bowl. Making them an easy way to start a Saturday.
*The New Yorker published an excellent piece on the king of grocery store strawberries, Driscoll's: "How Driscoll’s Reinvented the Strawberry: The berry behemoth turned produce into a beauty contest, and won" by Dana Goodyear (August 14th 2017)
Note about cutting strawberries: hull your strawberry. Place it hulled side on the cutting board. Cut small to medium sized berries into 4-6 pieces. cut larger berries into more pieces.
Note about buttermilk vs sour cream and other substitutions: Sometimes you have buttermilk, and sometimes you don't. I am NOT making a special trip to the store for buttermilk. All of the substitutes below work well. Just reduce the amount of liquid from 1 and 3/4 cups to just over 1 and 1/2 cups. If you have low-fat butter milk use 1 and 1/2 cups liquid. If you have sour cream, yogurt, or Crème fraîche, then use 1 cup of milk mixed with 1/2 cup of your soured dairy product.
Strawberry Pancakes (using out of season berries)
Serves 6. Takes 15 minutes to prepare and 15 to cook all the batter.
No special equipment needed
Ingredients
1 pound strawberries
2 tablespoons granulated white sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter (plus more for greasing your pan)
2 eggs
1 and 3/4 cup thick butter milk OR other substitution (see note above)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
1 and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/2 cup all purpose flour
STEP ONE
Hull and cut up your strawberries taking care to remove any brown spots or places where the berry did not ripen (remains white). Put your chopped strawberries in a bowl, add sugar and stir to mix. Set sugared strawberries aside to macerate for 10 minutes while you make your pancake batter.
STEP TWO
Barely melt your butter (I do this in the microwave) and then pour it to a large mixing bowl. Add buttermilk and eggs, and then whisk with a fork to combine. Sprinkle baking powder, baking soda, and salt on top of the wet ingredients and whisk again to combine. Next, stir in your flour until just barely mixed. Then, GENTLY fold in the strawberries making sure to get all that good sugary strawberry juice into the batter.
STEP THREE
Heat a large skillet or griddle on medium low. Add a small pat of butter to cover the bottom of the pan/griddle. Butter should sizzle a bit but not start browning. Add a large spoonful (about 1/4 cup) of pancake batter and cook until pancakes just begin to bubble around the edges. Because of the strawberries cooking time will take longer than it would with a regular pancake, be patient. Flip your pancake and cook on the other side until cooked through. Don't be afraid if a little batter bubbles up on the already cooked side, just flip your pancake back over and cook for a few more seconds .
Enjoy pancakes with maple syrup, whipped cream, or as at our house, plain with your fingers. Leftover pancakes can be stored for a day in the fridge and reheated in the toaster or microwave.
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